A proposed municipal trip to Raseborg, Finland, has been deemed financially unviable, with some councillors at the ordinary council meeting last week arguing instead for a Finnish delegation to visit Grahamstown in October.
A proposed municipal trip to Raseborg, Finland, has been deemed financially unviable, with some councillors at the ordinary council meeting last week arguing instead for a Finnish delegation to visit Grahamstown in October.
According to the report on this item, the town of Raseborg is interested in the areas of economic development, arts and culture and education – especially the water and waste management supply.
The report sought approval for the Makana council to enter into a friendship/cooperation agreement where the Finnish delegation would be hosted by Grahamstown in October and the Makana delegation would visit Raseborg in turn.
In June Makana Mayor Vumile Lwana resolved “to write an official letter of interest with the intention [to]enter into a friendship cooperation agreement with the town of Raseborg in Finland."
Chief Financial Officer Jackson Ngcelwane said: “Since budget provision for International Relations under
the offices of the Executive Mayor and Municipal Manger is limited to R50 000, additional funding for this cooperative agreement has to be sourced elsewhere.”
However, Local Economic Development Director, Riana Meiring was in support of the partnership. She said
the Makana Freedom Festival, Edu-tourism and the new project to upgrade the Egazini Memorial Precinct
would benefit from learning how Raseborg markets similar projects. The development of small, medium and macro enterprises would also benefit from such an agreement.
The director of Technical and Infrastructural Services Dabula Njilo agreed, saying that Raseborg’s interest in education on the water and waste management supply would help the municipality to address the challenges of attracting and retaining engineering experts.
But DA Councillor Michael Whisson warned: “A year or two ago the council was urged to enter into a relationship with a place called Lakota [on the Ivory Coast]and it turned out it was an almost uninhabitable village.” Whisson explained that Raseborg is best known for the ruins of a castle that was built in the 14th century. The town itself is fairly new as it was created by the amalgamation of several
villages in 2009. The total population is 30 000 people which is about a third of Grahamstown's population.
“Its products, apart from possibly tourism which everybody has an interest in, do not appear to overlap
in any way with Makana,” said Whisson. “The language is Finnish, which is a very unusual language, similar
to Hungarian and Swedish.” Whisson added that ratepayers would not be happy if they were asked to invest their money in this trip.
His objection was seconded by Councillor Lena May. “This item should totally be withdrawn. It’s a waste of
money,” she said. May said there are six houses in ward 11 without roofs since the 2008 tornado blew them off so these repairs should rather be prioritised. Councillor Julia Wells said that the Directorate’s
comments motivated the proposal so she is in support of the trip to Finland. This was supported by Councillor Melikhaya Pongolo.
Wells said that it should be noted that the proposal was compiled by the Department of International Affairs whose aim is to build international partnerships and that there is money set aside in the budget for international relations.
Councillor Les Reynolds said the council must not be dazzled by marketing proposals. “The CFO was saying
in a roundabout way, where will we get the money? I promise you we will not get anything from this so we
need to be careful in considering this.”
He spoke of a municipal trip that was taken years ago to Fisciano in Italy where nothing fruitful came out of it. “If people have no water, have sewage problems, people’s roads are not paved, we have too much work. “We can entertain them, but we cannot go overseas,” he said. Council then resolved not to approve the trip to Finland, but decided to consider the proposal to host the Raseborg delegation in Grahamstown this month.
